Royal Challengers Bangalore Won Against Mumbai Indians

Chasing 157, Mumbai Indians handled to score 154 as RCB protected a 2-run win on the last ball of the second IPL conflict on Thursday.

Earlier, Chris Gayle smashed an unbeaten 92 to guide Royal Challengers Bangalore to a fighting 156 for five against Mumbai Indians.

After a relatively slow start, Gayle upped his tempo as he scored his 92 off just 58 deliveries and hit 11 boundaries and five towering sixes in the process.

Gayle initially adopted a wait and watch policy on a seaming Chinnaswammy track before exploding in the eight over.

Even though wickets kept tumbling at the other end, the big-hitting West Indian was hardly bothered as he went about his business in style, notching up his 13th IPL fifty and first of the season.

The start, however, was far from rosy for the home team as they lost Tillakaratne Dilshan early, bowled by Mitchell Johnson with the scoreboard reading just three.

Newly-appointed RCB captain Virat Kohli played a short 24-run cameo before he was LBW by debutant Jasprit Bumrah, who returned with the best figures for the Mumbai outfit scalping three wickets for 32 runs.

Bumrah, with a unique action, then accounted for Mayank Agarwal in his next over caught by Sachin Tendulkar.

With wickets falling at the other end, it took Gayle eight overs to broke his shackles when he cracked a boundary and a six off Bumrah in consecutive balls.

After a relatively quiet first 10 overs that produced just 59 runs, RCB rode on Gayle's pyrotechnics to score 97 runs in the next 60 deliveries.

After opening up, Gayle then targeted his West Indian team-mate Kieron Pollard, picking up 15 runs with two boundaries and a six off the 11th over

Out-of-favour India off-spinner Harbhajan Singh gave Mumbai a much-needed breakthrough in the form of Daniel Christian, caught at deep midwicket by Johsnson.

Bumrah scalped his third wicket when he trapped Karun Nair leg before to see RCB in a spot of bother a 80 for four in 12.4 overs.

But Gayle and KB Arun Karthik (19 not out) shared an unconquered 81-run stand for the sixth wicket to take RCB past the 150-mark.

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Kolkata Knight Riders defeat Delhi Daredevils by 6 wickets

Gautam Gambhir (41) and Sunil Narine (4-13) served Kolkata Knight Riders defeat Delhi Daredevils by six wickets in the IPL 6 at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Wednesday.

Eoin Morgan and Yusuf Pathan took Kolkata Knight Riders home without any further damage as the home team began the defence of their title in style. In the end, it was an easy chase; KKR won the match by six wickets with eight balls to spare.

Delhi Daredevils will be frustrated with their performance. They lost their big gamers like Virender Sehwag and Kevin Pietersen, but even they would have been amazed with the way their batting crumbled. 

After bowling Delhi out for 128 in 20 overs, KKR reached the target in 18.4 overs losing four wickets. KKR collected two points for the win. It was a superb bowling effort by Sunil Narine who took four wickets for 13 runs in four overs.

Highlights of Game:

# Brett Lee got a wicket off the first ball of this edition of IPL. The Australian bowled Unmukt Chand for a duck on the first ball of the match 

# KKR got a wicket off the last ball too when Shahbaz Nadeem was run out 

# Delhi managed just one six in their entire innings. It was hit by captain Mahela Jayawardene 

# Only two Delhi batsmen managed to get into double figures. Jayawardene (66) and David Warner (21) were the two 

# Jayawardene registered the first half century of IPL 6 

# During his knock today, Jayawardene completed 1,500 runs in IPL 

# Delhi scored 15 boundaries in the innings 

# Captain Gautam Gambhir top scored for KKR with 42 runs 

# KKR scored two sixes, one each from Gambhir and Yusuf Pathan 

# KKR scored 14 boundaries. Gambhir and Jacques Kallis hit five each 

# Sunil Narine was impressive with figures of 4/13 in 4 overs 

# Narine won the Man-of-the-match award, his fourth in IPL 

# Delhi missed Virender Sehwag who sat out of the match due to back spasms 

# Left-arm spinner Nadeem was the most successful Delhi bowler with figures of 2/22 in 4 overs 

# Delhi were let down by poor fielding 

# Delhi were about 15 to 20 runs short

Teams:

Kolkata Knight Riders: Gautam Gambhir (captain), Brett Lee, Eoin Morgan, Jacques Kallis, Laxmipathy Balaji, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Manoj Tiwary, Manvinder Bisla, Rajat Bhatia, Sunil Narine and Yusuf Pathan.

Delhi Daredevils: Mahela Jayawardene (captain), Andre Russell, Ashish Nehra, David Warner, Irfan Pathan, Johan Botha, Manpreet Juneja, Naman Ojha, Shahbaz Nadeem, Umesh Yadav and Unmukt Chand.

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Pepsi IPL 2013 Event Starts With Huge Celebrations At Kolkata’s Salt Lake Stadium

A huge and shining starting heralded the start of IPL 2013 in style at Kolkata’s salt lake stadium. The location looked like a star-studded universe with decorated lightings, the globe's cricket celebrities and performing entertainers.

Well known performers from the film industry, companies worldwide artist Pitbull and Bollywood acting professional and co-owner of the Kolkata knight riders, Shah Rukh Khan, along with co-star katrina along with Deepika Padukone held the stag and organised move over the loaded viewers. Besides the superstars performing, the stag was also set on fire by flying drummers, Chinese percussionists and spectacular fireworks.

Amongst all the charm cricket held its focus in a suave and sensible way. The captains of the nine groups playing IPL 2013 took center stag hen they joined hands to pledge adherence to the belief, ‘Play hard, Play fair’ by deciding upon on the MCC sprit of Cricket board. Former Indian cricketer and current commentator, Ravi Shastri administered the pledge.

The moment that surprised and stunned close to 45,000 people present at the stadium came just before the captains signed the MCC Spirit of Cricket oath. A girl clad in white appeared over the arena, swinging a bunch of colourful balloons, carrying the Pepsi IPL 2013 Trophy. She stopped at the centre and handed over the trophy to the captain of the current holders, Gautam Gambhir.

Salt Lake Stadium, one of the biggest football arenas in Asia, was packed and alive with the noise of passionate fans. The people of Kolkata reserved the loudest cheers for their adopted son and captain of KKR, Gautam Gambhir and team owner, SRK.

The Bollywood superstar began his performance by thanking the West Bengal chief minister, Mamata Bannerjee, BCCI President, N Srinivasan, IPL Chairman, Rajeev Shukla and IPL COO, Sundar Raman for their presence at the event.

He then set the arena on a foot-tapping mode by dancing to a few hit numbers from his movies. He also displayed some of his moves to the tune of well known Bengal musicians, Bappi Lahiri and Usha Uthup.

The last performance of the day was from Pitbull, who involved the audience and began a celebration. The Pitbull display survived well into the night after the Starting Night was over.

Those who joined the occasion, it was an night that culminated with exhausted legs, painful throats and remembrances of an memorable time at Salt Lake Stadium! 

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IPL 2013 Opening Ceremony

IPL 2013 is going to celebrate its opening ceremony today at Eden Gardens in Kolkata. Bollywood’s mega start Shah Rukh Khan Promises for a spectacular opening show of the Indian Premier League.  Not only the whole country but the fans of IPL across the world will feel the real joy with IPL opening ceremony.

"The Pepsi IPL 2013 opening nite will be a spectacular ceremony, the likes of which India has never seen before," Shah Rukh told to iplt20.com

Shah Rukh Khan going to perform for some of his songs at the Salt Lak Stadium. IPL 2013 Opening ceremony will go on by 2 hours with star appearances. Deepika Padukone and Katrina Kaif are the other Indian celebrities who are going to dance for the IPL opening ceremony. Pitbull, the international rapper, will thrill the audiences with his awesome performance.

Shah Rukh said IPL and hindi mainstream cinema have various common qualities - "Excitement, suspense, tension, joy, heartbreak, and action". Kolkata Knight Riders who won the title last year got a chance to host the IPL opening ceremony and finals of IPL 2013.

IPL Opening ceremony will start with Fire Crackers show in the night.. The dance sequence will begin with Tagore's 'Aguner Poroshmani' playing in the background as the teeny-boppers take to the arena in 'Om' formation, holding aloft torches.The stars will star their performance one after one. Rabindra Sangeet will resonate the stadium.

Good news is that the weather is so good and there is no sign of rain at any time of the Opening ceremony. We will bring you more live updates from opening ceremony venue.

Watch IPL 2013 Opening Ceremony

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